Corporate Social Responsibility

We create our best buildings and achieve the best results in close collaboration with our customers and suppliers. Our core values – professional, honest, enthusiastic and ground-breaking – form the foundation for how we work every single day.

Veidekke bases its corporate governance on the guidelines in the Norwegian Code of Practice for Corporate Governance. Corporate social responsibility in areas such as healthand safety, the environment, ethics and anti-corruption is an integral part of our corporate governance through goals and strategies and is ultimately the responsibility of the corporate management and the Board.

Veidekke's business philosophy is to enter into value-creating partnerships with customers, our employees, the managementand suppliers – and with the communities in which we operate. We seek to strike a balance between financial, environmental and social considerations. For this reason, our health and safety targets have the same priority as our financial targets, and they are reported together with the financial figures to our owners and the market each quarter. Close collaboration with our subcontractors is essential to ensure good results. Employee co-ownership and participation in the development of the company are key features of Veidekke. Overall, this makes us well equipped to retain our employees' skills and expertise, ensure high health and safety standards and reduce the negative impact on the environment of our products and services.

Code of conduct

Veidekke has very clear ethical guidelines, and we strive constantly to strengthen this work and implement them throughout the entire organisation. Our Code of conduct defines clear ethical guidelines that help us navigate our daily work within the company and with the various players we interact with.

International standards

Through a global framework agreement with the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions, the Norwegian Union of General Workers (NAF) and the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW), Veidekke has pledged to work for continuous improvements in the areas of working conditions, industrial relations, health and safety in the workplace and the environment. All Veidekke's employees are covered by this agreement, under which Veidekke actively adheres to several recognised international standards:

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work includes specific requirements concerning freedom of association; the right to collective bargaining; measures against discrimination, forced labour and child labour; measures to ensure workers' health, safety and working environment;and decent pay and working conditions.

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. As early as 1976, the OECD prepared guidelines for multinational enterprises and has thus been a pioneering institution in corporate social responsibility. Veidekke's commitments aim to contribute to sustainable development through economic, environmental and social progress.

Veidekke uses the third and currently most recent version of the internationally recognised GRI standard (Global Reporting Initiative) G3.1 to organise our work on CSR. We have also used the new ISO standard on social responsibility, ISO 26000, in our work on developing relevant goals. A new version of the GRI guidelines (G4) was released in 2014, and we will revise our goals and our reports in line with this.

Ethics and compliance

Veidekke operates in a geographical area and in an industry that already have high ethical standards, and integrity has always been an important core value at Veidekke. At the same time we are aware that both society and our industry face challenges from rogue actors. Social dumping, fraud and irresponsible health and safety practices are challenges that parts of our industry must address.

Veidekke's compliance with legislation, regulations and our own internal values depends on the choices that all of our employees make every single day. It is therefore important for Veidekke that everyone identifies with and understands the fundamental values that form the foundation of the Veidekkehuset management and corporate conduct model. Training is a key element here, and we conduct a wide range of development and training programmes related to ethics and compliance with laws, regulations and guidelines. The programmes are tailored to the individual divisions, with examples that reflect the kinds of situations that workers in the various divisions face on a day-to-day basis. In addition, everyone at Veidekke has access to our e-learning ethics portal. The portal contains advice on how ethical issues and dilemmas should be handled and exercises where employees can test themselves.

Ethics is a permanent part of the introductory training programme that all new employees undergo.

Veidekke has a whistle-blowing system for reporting circumstances that might constitute a breach of Veidekke's values or laws and regulations. Everyone who becomes aware of irregular activities has the right and duty to report the matter. There is more information on reporting irregularities and how such matters are processed.

Correct market behaviour

Veidekke's core value "integrity" requires that we act in a way that ensures healthy competition that benefits our customers and society. Neither Veidekke, our employees nor anyone else acting on behalf of Veidekke must act in breach of competition law.Veidekke has drawn up guidelines for honest, fair behaviour on the market. The guidelines provide information about the requirements that our operations must abide by and the standards that Veidekke sets for itself, our employees and partners. A basic principle is that no employee shall make a decision alone on issues where doubts may be raised concerning compliance with the competition law.

These guidelines are easily accessible on Veidekke's Intranet, in a number of slightly different versions adapted to the different countries and business areas in which we operate, and are supplemented by more detailed guidelines for each business area. The guidelines have been integrated into all the relevant management systems with routines and control procedures.

Anti-corruption

Veidekke works actively to prevent corruption. Our Compliance Programme aims to increase awareness of and knowledge about anti-corruption and compliance with the legislation, regulations and guidelines. Veidekke collaborates actively with the police and the tax authorities to combat unlawful practices.